Harmison decision a mistake, says Warne

England may have missed their best attacking option by leaving Steve Harmison out of the Lord's Test, according to Shane Warne.

The retired leg-spinner said Harmison was the bowler the Australians least wanted to face.

England's selectors opted for the conservative when they preferred Graham Onions, who is one of the form bowlers in county cricket but has nothing like Harmison's menace.

Onions replaced spinner Monty Panesar, who was dropped, in the only change to the England team after Andrew Flintoff (knee) was declared fit.

"I know the Australians don't like facing him," said Warne.

Warne said he well remembered the hum that went up in the Australian dressing room at Lord's four years ago when Harmison roughed them up in the first session of the series, injuring Justin Langer and opening up a cut on Ricky Ponting's right cheek.

Harmison twice dismissed opener Phillip Hughes with bouncers angling back into him in a trial game at Worcester earlier this month.

However, the paceman is always a risk. He can bowl like lightning for a few overs and then subside into mediocrity for the rest of the innings.

And he's not yet been forgiven for an abject Ashes tour of Australia in 2006-07. He opened the series with a wide that went to second slip and it was all downhill from there.